Latest news with #generationalchange
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
David Hogg draws attacks from both sides as his star rises
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg is seeing his political star rise — along with the number of attacks lobbed at him from both parties. Hogg has drawn ire and praise from Democrats for his move to get involved in the party's congressional primaries, part of what he says is an effort to bring about generational change. Republicans, meanwhile, have long sought to turn him into a foil. And now that the 25-year-old activist-turned-party-leader finds himself at the center of a feud among Democrats, the GOP sees a golden opportunity. 'Someone brought up to me today that your average voter doesn't know who David Hogg is,' said one national Republican operative. 'What's your strategy? Why are you guys talking about him so much?' 'It's the most obvious point to show the national media, which is the Hogg wing taking over the Democratic Party,' the operative continued. Hogg has seen his profile steadily grow since he first burst onto the political scene following the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., when he was a senior. He quickly became one of the leading voices of the gun control movement and later co-founded March for Our Lives. In February, he was elected a vice chair of the DNC. And in April, he made waves when his group Leaders We Deserve launched a $20 million initiative aimed at primarying incumbent Democrats in safe House seats with the hope of electing a new generation of members. Hogg explicitly noted that the group would not target front-line members or members in competitive districts. So far, the group has only publicly endorsed one candidate, backing Illinois state Sen. Robert Peters (D) in the open seat race for the state's 2nd Congressional District. But Hogg's decision to engage in the primaries has drawn criticism. While many members of the party acknowledge that Democrats need to do a better job of paving the way for new voices and a cohort that's more responsive to the party's needs, others have criticized him for overseeing the effort while serving as a DNC leader. Now, the Gen Z firebrand is contending with the possibility of losing his DNC position altogether. Members of the organization's Rules and Bylaws Committee decided earlier this month that they would hold an electronic vote in June to determine whether they should redo the elections of the vice chair positions won by Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. The decision was made after one of the candidates who lost, Kalyn Free, challenged the way the election was conducted. Free's challenge is unrelated to Hogg's efforts to primary Democratic incumbents. Hogg has criticized the move, saying it's 'impossible to ignore the broader context' in which it's being implemented — a nod to the criticism of his primary efforts. Other Democrats have pushed back on Hogg's claims, including Kenyatta. 'David's first statement out of the gate was, here's the Democratic Party doing some maniacal thing to push me out because of what he's doing with his PAC,' Kenyatta said in an interview with MSNBC earlier in May. 'David knows that that is not true.' In an interview with Fast Company, Hogg did not go into detail about his conversations with Kenyatta but said he sees their disagreement as a 'strategic' one. Howard Chou, a DNC member from Colorado who voted for Kenyatta but not Hogg during the initial vice chair election, praised Hogg and his ascension within the party, saying that for Hogg 'to rise to a level that he's gotten to is pretty impressive, to be honest.' But Chou acknowledged Hogg's DNC vice chair tenure 'can be seen as tumultuous' and said he disagreed with the idea of engaging in primaries as an official. 'He's done some revolutionary things, but we should still hold to standards and rules of … what we're doing here … we're the governing body of the national Democratic Party,' Chou said. DNC Chair Ken Martin, who has lauded Hogg as an 'amazing young leader' and said he had 'great respect' for him, has also told reporters he's against Hogg primarying members while holding the vice chair position. 'No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election,' Martin said on a press call last month. Some Democrats are more conflicted. For Paul Eckerstrom, senior vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party and a former DNC member, it's a question he has struggled with. 'Whether a challenger in a primary is successful or not, I think it's probably a good thing even for the sitting congressperson to at least, you know, pay attention to their constituency, pay attention to certain issues and not get complacent,' Eckerstrom said. 'So I have a hard time criticizing David for doing what he's doing.' At the same time, Eckerstrom added, 'maybe Ken's got a point' about not primarying members while being a sitting DNC member. Hogg has defended his plans and says Democrats need to better meet the moment as the party looks to reset heading into 2026 and 2028. 'We can't just hope that Donald Trump screws everything up so much that voters come begging back to us for any alternative.' he told Fast Company. 'We don't want people to feel like they're just voting for the less bad of two options. What we're trying to do is light a fire under everybody's ass in our party. And frankly, if that makes you uncomfortable, maybe you should question whether or not you should run.' Still, the drama surrounding Hogg and Free's efforts to challenge the election results are threatening to deepen divisions within the party as Democrats look to win back the House and possibly the Senate next year. Republicans, for their part, can't get enough of Hogg. The party has sought to paint Hogg as a liability for Democrats, tying him to every young, progressive Democrat primarying an incumbent. 'If he wants to work to elect more Democrat crazies and encourage more wokeism and nonsense, I'd say fantastic,' said Brian Seitchik, an Arizona Republican strategist and alum of President Trump's campaign. Democrats do not necessarily look at Hogg as a threat to their incumbents. While they argue Hogg has seen major success in the activist space in co-founding March for Our Lives, some Democrats note he is not the only influential player in the party and still has more experience to gain. 'He's an unbelievably talented activist and advocate, and he certainly has the ear of many influential people and in the progressive movement he's an all-star,' said one Democratic strategist. However, the strategist added that they did not understand how Hogg's group primarying other Democrats would be beneficial to the party. 'He's leading an organization that is publicly calling for primaries against longstanding Democrats on the basis of are they good? Like let's define that,' the strategist said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
4 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Two longtime House Democrats face primary challenges from younger opponents
Two Democrats who've spent decades in Congress this week became the latest in their party to face primary challenges from much younger opponents. Longtime Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer has yet to announce whether he will seek re-election next year for a 24th two-year term in Congress. If he does, he will face a primary challenger who is making Hoyer's age — the congressman turns 86 next month and would be 89 at the end of his next term — a centerpiece of his campaign. Meanwhile, 78-year-old Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts—first elected to Congress nearly half a century ago—announced last October that he would seek another six-year term in the Senate. He is now facing a primary challenger who has criticized what he calls the senator's "absence" in pushing back against President Donald Trump. Harry Jarin, 35, a volunteer firefighter and emergency services consultant, said Thursday in a new video announcing his candidacy, "If you live here in southern Maryland, I want to ask you a tough question. Do you really think that Steny Hoyer, at 89-years-old, is the best person to represent us?" "Here's the bottom line: You don't put out a fire by sending in the same people who let it spread. Send in a firefighter," Jarin said. "Maryland deserves a new generation of leadership, and I'm ready to take up the fight." And in an interview with Fox News Digital, Jarin said: "I think we're facing a really serious constitutional crisis… Congress has really declined as an institution over the last three or four years. Congress has surrendered a lot of its legislative power under the Constitution over to the executive branch. I think that's been very corrosive to our political system." Asked about his motivation to primary challenge Hoyer, Jarin said, "It's not just about getting someone younger and fresher in. It's getting someone in who understands the need to revitalize Congress as an institution." Fox News reached out to Hoyer's office for a response, but a spokesperson declined to respond. Hoyer, who first won his seat in Congress in a 1981 special election, from 2003 to 2023, was the second-ranking House Democrat behind Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He served as House Majority Leader from 2007-2011 and from 2019-2023, when the Democrats controlled the chamber. Along with Pelosi, Hoyer stepped down from his longtime leadership position at the end of 2022 but remained in Congress. "I think all of us have been around for some time and pretty much have a feel for the timing of decisions. And I think all three of us felt that this was the time," Hoyer told CNN at the time, as he referred to the moves by the top three House Democrats — Pelosi, Hoyer and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. — to step down from their leadership roles. Hoyer has long been a major backer of the Democrats' top issues, and during his second tenure as House majority leader, he played a crucial role in the passage of then-President Joe Biden's so-called American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He represents Maryland's Democrat-dominated 5th Congressional District, which covers a region known as Southern Maryland, and includes the suburbs south and east of Washington, D.C., a sliver of suburban Baltimore and Annapolis, as well as rural areas farther south. Hoyer, who suffered a minor stroke last year, is the latest high-ranking House Democrat to face a primary challenge from a younger opponent. Pelosi and Reps. Brad Sherman of California and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois have drawn primary challenges, with Schakowsky later announcing that she will no longer run for re-election. Jarin told Fox News that when he spoke with voters in the district about Hoyer, they had concerns about the incumbent's age. "The main reaction I got when I asked people about Steny Hoyer was first and foremost his age," Jarin said. "The idea that he would be close to 90 years old at the end of the next term is just a little bit nuts for people. I think people are starting to process how extreme a situation that is." The primary challenges come as Democrats are still trying to regroup following last November's election setbacks, when the party lost control of the White House and their Senate majority, and came up short in their bid to win back the House. The party's base is angry and energized to push back against the sweeping and controversial moves by Trump in the four months since he returned to the White House. Additionally, while much of that anger and energy is directed at fighting the White House and congressional Republicans, some of it is targeted at Democrats whom many in the party's base feel aren't vocal enough in their efforts to stymie Trump. Concurrently, other longtime and older House Democrats in safe blue districts are facing the possibility of primary challenges. This, after newly elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg last month pledged to spend millions of dollars through his outside political group to back primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" House Democrats — lawmakers he argued have failed to effectively push back against Trump. The move by the 25-year-old Hogg, a survivor of the horrific shooting seven years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, to spend money against fellow Democrats ignited a firestorm within the party. Jarin said that "we have reached out to David Hogg. We've been in communication." But Hogg told The Washington Post last month that he wouldn't support primary challenges against Hoyer, Pelosi or Clyburn. As for his ability to raise money for his campaign, Jarin said, "I do come from a political family." He noted that his husband was a major donor and bundler for former President Joe Biden's successful 2020 campaign and also served as a DNC finance director, and that his uncle had "been a big bundler for Democratic causes for a long time." "I think a lot of donors realize that this is a problem but may not be able to say it out loud for fear of repercussions," he argued. Jarin said that he's received "some pushback from donors for concerns of prioritizing more marginal districts" instead of pouring resources into swing seats as the party aims to win back the House majority in 2026. "My message to them has been that putting extremely elderly politicians like Steny Hoyer back into office for a 24th term sends a message to voters across the country that Democrats are just the party of status quo and clearly that message has not been working," he said. In Massachusetts, first-time candidate Alex Rikleen — a father, former teacher and fantasy sports writer, this week launched a primary challenge against Markey. While Rikleen didn't spotlight the senator's age, he did argue that "Markey, like many other Democrats, has stood silently by as [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer surrenders Democrats' leverage" in battling Trump. Rikleen said that he is "stepping forward to challenge an incumbent because Democrats have shown us that they are not going to change course on their own…in this perilous moment, I believe we need dramatic action now and we are not getting it from our current Democratic leaders." And while he said that "Sen. Markey has been a fantastic leader on progressive policy throughout my lifetime and he is better than most at standing up for others. In a normal political environment, I'd proudly continue voting for him," he argued that "this is not a normal moment. Better than most is not good enough." But Markey has been very visible this year, as he attended protests and rallies across Massachusetts. And last month he traveled to Louisiana to urge the Trump administration to release Rumeysa Ozturk, a student at Massachusetts' Tufts University who was handcuffed while walking on a street by masked Department of Homeland Security agents and detained at an ICE facility. And Markey took to social media on Thursday to once again defend Harvard University in its battle with the Trump administration, pledging that "Massachusetts will not be bullied."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Maher shakes David Hogg's hand over candid remarks about young voters
Comedian Bill Maher shook hands with Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice chair David Hogg on Friday, after the operative delivered his take on why the Democratic Party lost a chunk of young voters in the 2024 presidential election. 'What I think happened last election is younger men, they would rather vote for somebody … who they don't completely agree with — [that] they don't feel judged by — than somebody who they do agree with that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around constantly because they're going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated,' Hogg said Friday during an appearance on HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' The fiery Democrat, who has spearheaded calls for generational change within the party, argued that the two major parties have swapped in terms of tolerance, which he says has contributed to the left losing young voters. 'Republicans used to be the judgmental a–holes in many ways,' Hogg continued. 'And since many Democrats — despite us, I would say, for most of us [are] coming from the right place of wanting to do the right thing — we've created a culture where we say, well, if you say the wrong thing, you're excommunicated.' 'That's just not how human beings work. Nobody's perfect,' he added. Hogg, who was elected as vice chair of the DNC in early February, said last month that his group, Leaders We Deserve, will roll out a $20 million to challenge House Democrats in safe seats as part of a push to bring in new leaders to the coalition. 'We're not only focused on targeting Democratic incumbents when necessary,' he told The Hill at the time. 'We are here to elect young people who are running in open seats. We're here to elect young people that are running open, competitive seats as well, and support them when they align with our values.' Maher on Friday challenged the young Democrat on how much influence President Trump had on losing those voters, pointing to the Trump campaign's argument that Vice President Harris cared more about 'woke stuff' than the electorate. 'I mean, if you go and look why they didn't vote for them, it was more of the woke stuff, wasn't it? Isn't that the strategy that Trump employed? Like, she's for they, them, and he's for you. That was the big ad that worked,' he said, according to a clip shared by Mediaite. Hogg brushed off the sentiment, claiming, 'Ultimately, unlike Republicans, Democrats have the hard job of making government work.' He later outlined what he sees as a pathway for Democrats to retain and bring in more young voters into their movement. 'What we have to do here is figure out how to bring people back in and work towards the bigger goal of advancing the future of this country and helping young people, especially get by so that they're able to focus on their lives and you know, getting with a young woman or something like that instead of how are they going to pay their rent, for example, or how are they working their two jobs,' he said. 'Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun,' Hogg added. The Democrat first came into the spotlight as a survivor of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla. He has since been a vocal advocate for gun reform. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
